Casual dress codeYoung work environmentLocated right next to Cabrini GreenLow salary teaches you good budgetingUnique culture

Cons

Let's start with the hours. I hope you enjoy early mornings because the mandatory start time is 630am. At around 640am the megaphones come out and those who are late are berated in front of their peers by management. There is no defined end time for this role either. I like to relate it to high school; your teacher will tell you when you can leave. Unique to most companies Fridays are actually the longest day of the week at Echo. Management takes privy to making the entire floor stay late on Fridays regardless if there is no work left to be done. It's a very interesting management philosophy to say the least.

As for compensation... Don't expect much. With roughly a 300% increase in department size in the past year commission is harder to come by. Management does do a good job showcasing the select few individuals that have stuck with the company and make decent money. However, don't expect to make more than $35,000 your first year. Keep in mind management has just slashed compensation on the customer side by roughly 20-25% so that first year salary figure may decrease.

At the end of the day you need to come into this job with low expectations. Carrier reps are regarded as glorified truck dispatchers and are at the bottom of the totem pole at Echo. If logistics is an industry that interests you I would recommend pursuing the client sales side. The hours are much more relaxed and the perks are much better (craft beers vs warm miller lite, team outings vs Friday night lock ins, etc.)

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Keep doing what you're doing. Investors are getting great end over end results and the hire rate has been high enough to offset the burn out rate. Just be careful with over hiring. Low salary helps hedge the risk but it's important to scale your growth.

We welcomed 9 students from the University of Illinois to our Chicago headquarters last week and taught them how to live the #freightlife! They toured the office, met a few members of the executive team, and shadowed some of our employees. They ended the day with a "speed-dating" style Q&A session with Echo's Illinois Alumn. It was fun to encourage college students to start thinking about their careers and help them explore the growing logistics industry!